Pierce's review
Unless: A Novel by Carol Shields
Kind of self indulgent, maybe? I don't know. People keep telling me it was all about the mother's flustering about with tangental stuff to ignore the problem of her daughter, but if you write a novel about not dealing with something then what people are actually reading is whatever the distraction is, here: Feminism.
And then we find out about the daughter at the end and suddenly it all seems, like: What the fuck was that about? Why did I have to read so many descriptions of your house furnishings? Go and pull you daughter off the street and get her some help. Liberalism is not abandoning your family when they are obviously experiencing some kind of breakdown.
Also, you are totally right about women's continuing relegation to the sides lines of culture, and the wrongness of that, but: Why can't a man on his deathbed read whatever the fuck he wants? Leave him alone. The other letters I had no issue with.
Yeah, yeah, I know. It's a novel.
If you really want to read about home...more
And then we find out about the daughter at the end and suddenly it all seems, like: What the fuck was that about? Why did I have to read so many descriptions of your house furnishings? Go and pull you daughter off the street and get her some help. Liberalism is not abandoning your family when they are obviously experiencing some kind of breakdown.
Also, you are totally right about women's continuing relegation to the sides lines of culture, and the wrongness of that, but: Why can't a man on his deathbed read whatever the fuck he wants? Leave him alone. The other letters I had no issue with.
Yeah, yeah, I know. It's a novel.
If you really want to read about home...more
